Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The chairman of a Mississippi Senate committee on government transparency is telling the public not to use cellphones or other electronic devices while his committee meets.

Tuesday was the first big deadline of the 2016 legislative session, with House and Senate committees scrambling to consider general bills filed in their own chamber. Meetings were packed with lobbyists, journalists and spectators from the general public.

The Senate Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee had a standing-room-only crowd as it met to discuss several bills, including one to change the Jackson airport board.

Committee Chairman John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, announced at the outset that people could not use electronic devices or stand too close to senators during the meeting. Senators were seated at a large table, and the Senate sergeant at arms, Rick Hux, told spectators they couldn't stand along one of the walls behind the table.

People stood in three or four rows at the end of the table, and Hux quietly walked over to a few during the meeting and admonished them to stop using cellphones.

After the meeting, Polk told The Associated Press that he saw no conflict in a transparency chairman banning some communication by the public during a public meeting.

"They can take notes, just like you were doing," Polk said.

Polk also said he did not intend his ban on electronic communication to apply to journalists, although he didn't announce that at the beginning of the meeting. Two TV cameramen recorded part of the committee's debate, and they were allowed to do their jobs.

Similar restrictions on where spectators may sit or stand have been set in other committees, including Senate Education. The Senate this term has banned the public from using a portion of a public stairwell between the third and fourth floors of the Capitol — a space where lobbyists often buttonholed legislators on the way to the Senate chamber. House leaders this month took away half of the press row that had been established for decades in the House chamber, leaving fewer seats than there are reporters. The Senate chamber for years has had too few press seats for credentialed journalists.

Senate President Pro Tempore Terry Burton, R-Newton, said committee chairmen are allowed to set limits on spectators during meetings. He said prohibiting people from looking over legislators' shoulders makes sense because legislators could be reading emails or text messages that contain personal information from constituents.

Burton also said it's a common practice for lobbyists or others to send electronic messages to legislators during committee meetings or floor debates, suggesting questions that legislators should ask. He said such communication can be distracting.

"There's a happy medium somewhere," Burton said of setting limits on the public in committee meetings. "I don't know what it is."